Informal Disaster Governance

Scholars and practitioners are increasingly questioning formal disaster governance (FDG) approaches as being too rigid, slow, and command-and-control driven. Too often, local realities and non-formal influences are sidelined or ignored to the extent that disaster governance can be harmed through the efforts to impose formal and/or political structures. A contrasting narrative emphasises so-called bottom-up, local, and/or participatory approaches which this article proposes to encapsulate as Informal Disaster Governance (IDG). This article theorises IDG and situates it within the long-standing albeit limited literature on the topic, paying particular attention to the literature’s failure to properly define informal disaster risk reduction and response efforts, to conceptualise their far-reaching extent and consequences, and to consider their ‘dark sides.’ By presenting IDG as a framework, this article restores the conceptual importance and balance of IDG vis-à-vis FDG, paving the way for a better understanding of the ‘complete’ picture of disaster governance. This framework is then considered in a location where IDG might be expected to be more powerful or obvious, namely in a smaller, more isolated, and tightly knit community, characteristics which are stereotypically used to describe island locations. Thus, Svalbard in the Arctic has been chosen as a case study, including its handling of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, to explore the merits and challenges with shifting the politics of disaster governance towards IDG

Addressing disaster and health risks for sustainable outer space

publishedVersio

The Pentagram Map: Combinatorial and Geometric Perspectives.

The pentagram map, introduced by R. Schwartz, is defined by the following construction: given a polygon as input, draw all of its shortest diagonals, and output the smaller polygon which they cut out. Expressed in suitable coordinates, this operation defines a rational map on the configuration space of polygons in the plane. We employ the machinery of cluster algebras to obtain explicit formulas for the iterates of the pentagram map. We next apply our formulas to study the singularities of the pentagram map. Singularities arise when the input polygon has certain degeneracies preventing the pentagram map from being carried out. We show that a "typical" singularity disappears after a finite number of iterations, a confinement phenomenon first discovered by Schwartz. In addition, we provide a method to bypass such a singular patch by geometrically constructing the first subsequent iterate that is well-defined on the singular locus under consideration.PHDMathematicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93989/1/maxglick_1.pd

Analysis of copy loss and gain variations in Holstein cattle autosomes using BeadChip SNPs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Copy number variation (CNV) has been recently identified in human and other mammalian genomes, and there is a growing awareness of CNV's potential as a major source for heritable variation in complex traits. Genomic selection is a newly developed tool based on the estimation of breeding values for quantitative traits through the use of genome-wide genotyping of SNPs. Over 30,000 Holstein bulls have been genotyped with the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip, which includes 54,001 SNPs (~SNP/50,000 bp), some of which fall within CNV regions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used the BeadChip data obtained for 912 Israeli bulls to investigate the effects of CNV on SNP calls. For each of the SNPs, we estimated the frequencies of occurrence of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and of gain, based either on deviation from the expected Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) or on signal intensity (SI) using the <it>PennCNV </it>"detect" option. Correlations between LOH/CNV frequencies predicted by the two methods were low (up to r = 0.08). Nevertheless, 418 locations displayed significantly high frequencies by both methods. Efficiency of designating large genomic clusters of olfactory receptors as CNVs was 29%. Frequency values for copy loss were distinguishable in non-autosomal regions, indicating misplacement of a region in the current BTA7 map. Analysis of BTA18 placed major quantitative trait loci affecting net merit in the US Holstein population in regions rich in segmental duplications and CNVs. Enrichment of transporters in CNV loci suggested their potential effect on milk-production traits.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Expansion of HWE and <it>PennCNV </it>analyses allowed estimating LOH/CNV frequencies, and combining the two methods yielded more sensitive detection of inherited CNVs and better estimation of their possible effects on cattle genetics. Although this approach was more effective than methodologies previously applied in cattle, it has severe limitations. Thus the number of CNVs reported here for the Holstein breed may represent as little as one-tenth of inherited common structural variation.</p

Estimation and Validation of a Multiattribute Model of Alzheimer Disease Progression

OBJECTIVES: To estimate and validate a multiattribute model of the clinical course of Alzheimer disease (AD) from mild AD to death in a high-quality prospective cohort study, and to estimate the impact of hypothetical modifications to AD progression rates on costs associated with Medicare and Medicaid services. DATA AND METHODS: The authors estimated sex-specific longitudinal Grade of Membership (GoM) models for AD patients (103 men, 149 women) in the initial cohort of the Predictors Study (1989-2001) based on 80 individual measures obtained every 6 mo for 10 y. These models were replicated for AD patients (106 men, 148 women) in the 2nd Predictors Study cohort (1997-2007). Model validation required that the disease-specific transition parameters be identical for both Predictors Study cohorts. Medicare costs were estimated from the National Long Term Care Survey. RESULTS: Sex-specific models were validated using the 2nd Predictors Study cohort with the GoM transition parameters constrained to the values estimated for the 1st Predictors Study cohort; 57 to 61 of the 80 individual measures contributed significantly to the GoM models. Simulated, cost-free interventions in the rate of progression of AD indicated that large potential cost offsets could occur for patients at the earliest stages of AD. CONCLUSIONS: AD progression is characterized by a small number of parameters governing changes in large numbers of correlated indicators of AD severity. The analysis confirmed that the progression of AD represents a complex multidimensional physiological process that is similar across different study cohorts. The estimates suggested that there could be large cost offsets to Medicare and Medicaid from the slowing of AD progression among patients with mild AD. The methodology appears generally applicable in AD modeling

The on-top pair-correlation density in the homogeneous electron liquid

The ladder theory, in which the Bethe-Goldstone equation for the effective potential between two scattering particles plays a central role, is well known for its satisfactory description of the short-range correlations in the homogeneous electron liquid. By solving exactly the Bethe-Goldstone equation in the limit of large transfer momentum between two scattering particles, we obtain accurate results for the on-top pair-correlation density $g(0)$, in both three dimensions and two dimensions. Furthermore, we prove, in general, the ladder theory satisfies the cusp condition for the pair-correlation density $g(r)$ at zero distance $r=0$.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

The two-fluid model with superfluid entropy

The two-fluid model of liquid helium is generalized to the case that the superfluid fraction has a small entropy content. We present theoretical arguments in favour of such a small superfluid entropy. In the generalized two-fluid model various sound modes of He$\;$II are investigated. In a superleak carrying a persistent current the superfluid entropy leads to a new sound mode which we call sixth sound. The relation between the sixth sound and the superfluid entropy is discussed in detail.Comment: 22 pages, latex, published in Nuovo Cimento 16 D (1994) 37